FRANKLIN

SILENCE

AND THE NOTION OF THE

COMMONS 64I

Silence and the Notio.n of the Commons

Unsure FReNruN
Ursulo Fronklin wos born in Germony in 192.l ond educoted there, eorning her PhD in physics ot the Technicol University of Berlin. She emigroted to Conodo ond become o scientist ot the Ontorio Reseorch Foundotion . ln 1967, she become the first.womon professor of metollurgy ond moteriols science ot the University of Toronto, where she is currently professor emeritus. One of the founders of the Conodion Reseorch Center for the Advoncement of Women, Fronklin is on octivist for sociol issues ond for peoce. Her highly regorded The ReolWorld of Technology (1989) is o study of the sociol impoct of technology. The following essoy is bosed .l993 ot o conference on ocoustic technology. Referring on o lecture Fronklin gove in

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to technology, Fronklin osks, "How does one tolk obout something thot is both fish ond woter, meons os well os end?"

u technological world, where the acoustic environment is largely artifisilence takes on new dimensions, be it in terms of the human need for silence (perhaps a person's right to be free from acoustic assault), of communica-

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tion, or of intentional modification of the environment.

Before we had a technologically mediated society, before we had electronics and electro-magnetic devices, sound was rightly seen as being ephemeral, sound was coupled to its source, and lasted only a very short time. This is very different from what we see in a landscape: however much we feel that the landscape might be modified, however much we feel that there is a horrible building somewhere in front of a beautiful mountain, on the scale of the soundscape, the landscape is

permanent. rvVhat is put up is there. That's very different from the traditional soundscape. What modern technology has brought to sound is the possibility of doing two things: to separate the sound from the source and to make the sound permanent. In addition, modern devices make it possible to decompose, recompose, analyze and mix sounds, to change the initial magnitude and sustainability of sound, as well as to change all the characteristics that link the sound with its source. R Murray Schafer called this "schizophonia," separating the sound from the source. We now have easy access to the multitude of opportunities that result from overcoming that coupling. The social impact of this technology is significant. Prior to these developments there was a limitation to sound and sound penetration.If you heard a bagpipe band there was a limit to the amount of time it would play; if you found it displeasing you could patiently wait until the players got exhausted. But with a recording of a bagpipe band, you are out of luck. It's never going to be exhausted. Electronics, then, have altered the modern soundscape. While modern technology is a source of joy in modern composition, through the opening of many doors for expression, it is also the source of a good number of problems related to the soundscape, problems which society as a whole must adjust to, cope with, and
possibly ameliorate. But then there is not only sound, there is silence. Silence is affected by these same technological developments, the same means of separating sound from source and overcoming the ephemeral nature of a soundscape. I have attempted to define silence and to analyze the attributes that make it valuable. Defining silence as the absence of external or artificially generated sound is fine, but it's a little bit shallod because silence in many ways is very much more than the absence of sound. Absence of sound is a condition necessary to silence but it is not sufficient in itself to define what we mean by silence. When one thinks about the concept of silence, one notices that there has to be somebody who listens

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SILENCE AND THE NOTION OF THE

COMMONS 643

before you can say there is silence. Silence, in addition to being an absence of
sound, is defined by a listener, by hearing.

A further attribute, or parameter of silence, from my point of view, comes out of the question: wLry is it that we worry about silence? I feel that one comes to the root of the meaning and practice of silence only when one asks, why is it that we value and try to establish silence? Because silence is an enabling environment. This is the domain that we have traditionally associated with silence, the enabling condition in which unprogrammed and unprogrammable events can take place. That is the silence of contemplation; it is the silence when people get in touch with themselves; it is the silence of meditation and worship. The distinctive character of this domain of silence is that it is an enabling condition that opens up the possibility of unprogrammed, unplanned, and unprogrammable
happenings.

In this light we understand why,

as Christians,

traditional Quakers found it

necessary in the seventeenth century, when theywere surrounded by all the pomp and circumstance of the church of England, to reject it. We understand why they

felt any ritual, in the sense of its programmed nature and predictability, to be a straitjacket rather than a comfort, and why they said to the amazement of their contemporaries: we worship God in silence. Their justification for the practice of silence was that they required it to hear God's voice. Beyond the individual's centering, beyond the individual effiort of meditation, there was the need for collective slIence. Collective silence is an enormously powerful event. There are contemporaneous accounts of Quaker meetings under heavy persecution in England, when thousands of people met silently on a hillside. Then out of the silence, one might person unappointed, unordained, unexpected, and unprogrammed speak, to say: Out of the silence there can come a ministry. The message is not essentially within that person, constructed in their intellect, but comes out of the silence to them. This isn't just history and theory. I think that if any one of you attended Quaker meetings, particularly on a regular basis, you would find that, suddenly, out of the silence, somebody speaks about something that had just entered your mind. It's an uncanny thing. The strength of collective silence is probably one of the most powerful spiritual forces. Now, in order for something like this to happen, a lot of things are required. There is what Quakers call: to be with heart and mind prepared. But there is also the collective decision to be silent. And to be silent in order to let unforeseen, unforeseeable, and unprogrammed things happen. Such silence, I repeat, is the environment that enables the unprogrammed. I feel it is very much at risk. I will elaborate on this, but first I want to say: there is another silence. There is the silence that enables a programmed, a planned, event to take place. There is the silence in which you courteously engage so that t fnight be heard: in order for one to be heard all the others have to be silent. But in many cases silence is not taken on voluntarily and it is this false silence of which I am afraid. It is not the silence only of the padded cell, or of solitary confinement; it is the silence that is enforced

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by the megaphone, the boom box, the PA system, and any other device that stifles other sounds and voices in order that a planned event can take place. There is a critical juncture between the planned and the unplanned, the programmed and the unplannable that must be kept in mind. I feel very stronglythat our present technological trends drive us toward a decrease in the space be it in the soundscape, the landscape, or the mindscape in which the unplanned and unplannable can happen. Yet silence has to remain available in the soundscape, the landscape, and the mindscape. Allowing openness to the unplannable, to the unprogrammed, is the core of the strength of silence. It is also the core of our individual and collective sanity. I extend that to the collectivity because, as a community, as a people, we are threatened just as much, if not more, by the impingement of the programmed over the silent, over that which enables the

unprogrammed. Much of the impingement goes unnoticed, uncommented upon, since it is much less obvious than the intrusion of a structure into the landscape. While we may not win all the battles at City Hall to preserve our trees, at least there is now a semi-consciousness that this type of struggle is important.
Where cari one go to get away from the dangers of even the gentle presence of programmed music, or Muzak, in our public buildings? Where do I protest that upon entering any place, from the shoe store to the restaurant, I am deprived of the opportunity to be quiet? Who has asked my permission to put that slop into the elevator I may have to use umpteen times every day? Many such "background" activities are intentionally manipulative. This is not merely "noise" that can be dealt with in terms of noise abatement. There are two aspects to be stressed in this context. One is that the elimination of silence is being done without anybody's consent. The other is that one really has to stop and think and analyze in order to see just how manipulative these interventions can be. For instance, in the Toronto Skydome, friends tell me that the sound environment is coupled and geared to the game: if the home team misses, there are
l0

mournful and distressing sounds over the PA; when the home team scores there is a sort of athletic equivalent of the Hallelujah Chorus. Again, the visitor has no
choice; the programmed soundscape is part of the event.You cannot be present at the game without being subjected to that mood manipulation.I wonder if music will soon be piped into the voter's booth, maybe an upbeat, slightly military tune: "Get on with it. Get the votes in." Ioking aside, soundscape manipulation is a serious issue. Who on earth has given anybody the right to manipulate the sound environment? Now, I want to come back to the definition of silence and introduce the notion of thp commons, because the soundscape essentially doesn't belong to anyone in particular. What we are hearing, I feel, is very much the privatization of the soundschpe, in the same manner in which the enclosure laws in Britain destroyed the commons of old. There was a time when in fact every community had what was called "the commonsj' an area that belonged to everybody and where sheep could graze a place important to all, belonging to all. The notion

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SILENCE AND THE NOTION OF THE

COMMONS 645

of the commons is deeply embedded in our social mind as something that all
share. There are many"commons" that we take for granted and for millenia, clean

air and clean water were the norm. Because of the ephemeral nature of sound in the past, silence was not considered part of the commons. Today, the technology to preserve and multiply sound and separate it from its source has resulted in our sudden awareness that silence, too, is a common good. Silence, which we need in order that unprogrammed and unprogrammable things can take place, is being removed from common access without much fuss and civic bother. It is being privatized. This is another illustration of an often-observed occurrence related to the impact of technology: that things considered in the past to be normal or ordinary become rare or extraordiflltft while those things once considered rare and unusual become normal and routine. Flying is no longer a big deal, but a handmade dress or a home-cooked meal may well be special. We essentially consider polluted water as normal now, and people who can afford it drink bottled water. It is hard to have bottled silence. But money still can buy distance from sound. like airport noise, Today, when there is civic anger, it is with respect to "noise" - elimination of etc. There is not yet such anger with respect to the manipulative silence from the soundscape. There are those of us who have acknowledged and seen the deterioration of the commons as far as silence is concerned, who have seen that the soundscape is so that one has to look for laws related to noise not only polluted by noise also that the soundscape has become increasingly polluted but abatement through the private use of sound in the manipulative dimension of setting and programming moods and conditions. There is a desperate need for awareness of this, and for awareness of it in terms of the collectivity, rather than just individual needs. I feel very much that this is a time for civic anger. This is a time when one has to say: town planning is constrained by by-Iaws on height, density, and other features; what are town planning's constraints in relation to silence? You may ask, what would I suggest? First of all, we must insist that, as human beings in a society, we have a right to silence. Just as we feel we have the right to walk down the street without being pfrysically assaulted by people and preferably without being visually assaulted by ugly outdoor advertising, we also have the right not to be assaulted by sound, and in particular, not to be assaulted by sound that is there solely for the purpose of profit. Now is the time for civic rage, as well as civic education, but also for some action. Think of the amount of care that goes into the regulation of parking, so that our goo.d, precious, and necessary cars have a place to be well and safe. That's very important to society. I have yet to see, beyond hospitals, a public building that has a quiet ro'bm. Is not our sanity at least as important as the safety of our cars? One should begin to think are there places, even in conferences like this, that are hassle-free, quiet spaces, where people can go? There were times when one could "l'{othing." "Ou,tt." did you f,s?" say to a kid: "Where did you go?"

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That sort of blessed time is past. The kid is programmed. We are programmed. And we don't even ask for a quiet space anymore. One possible measure, relatively close at hand, is to set aside, as a normal matter of human rights, in those buildings over which we have some influence, a quiet room. Further, I highly recommend starting committee meetings with two minutes of silence, and ending them with a few minutes of silence, too. I sit on committees that have this practice, and find that it not only can expedite the business before the committee, but also contributes to a certain amount of peacefulness and sanity. One can start a lecture with a few minutes of silence, and can close it the same way. There can be a few minutes of silence before a shared meal. Such things help, even if they help only in small ways. I do think even small initiatives make silence "visible" as an ever-present part of life. I now invite you to have two minutes of silence before we go on into the question period. Let us be quiet
together.

Exploring the Text

l.

Do you agree with the claim Ursula Franklin makes in the first sentence? What
examples would you use to illustrate how"silence takes on new dimensions"?

2. How does Franklin's selection of detail in paragraph 3 contribute to her tone? 3. In paragraphs 6 and 7, Franklin italicizes three phrases or sentences. How do
those italicized statements support her argument? What effect do the italics have?

4. What is the irony that Franklin describes in paragraph 8? 5. What is the effect of the parallelism in "the soundscape, the landscape, or the
mindscape" (para.9)?

6. What is a more contemporary example of the "elimination of silence" that Franklin discusses in paragraphs 10 and 11? How might this "elimination"be
manipulative? Do we have a right to silence, as Franklin claims? says that "things considered in the past to be normal or ordinary become rare or extraordinary, while those things once considered rare and unusual become normal and routinej'Give two examples from your observation that support her claim. 8. How would following Franklin's recommendations be beneficial (para. 15X What might make following her recommendations difficult? 9. What is the effect of Franklin's two concluding sentences? 10. As mentioned, this essaywas originally alecture Franklin gave at a conference on acoustic technology. What rhetorical strategies does she use to connect to her
7

. Inparagraph 13, Franklin

audience?

..